DEMARQUET'S ROLE IN THE STRUGGLE

Few biographies of Bolivar so much as
mention Demarquet and the works that do do so very much in passing.
Yet a wealth of correspondence and other details confirms his ongoing
and increasingly close relationship with the Liberator and his part
in a number of key episodes in the struggle for Latin American
independence. The fact that he played this role so close to the great
man himself, virtually in his shadow, may explain why he is less
known than others who, for instance, led troops into famous battles.
Though he was every inch a military man – with (per Von Hagen)
the missing fingers to prove it -, often his diplomatic and even what
we would call today his interpersonal skills were of as much use to
the cause as his skill and courage in battle.

(Note that what follows highlights
Demarquet's role in these events, some of which involved not only
conflict with Spain, but with other Latin American countries and even
among Bolivar's forces. Anyone who wants a clearer understanding of
specific references should refer to one of the innumerable works on
these subjects; several important matters are only mentioned or
hinted at here.)

The most common, if brief, mention of
Demarquet is as one of those who took part in the Expedition of Los
Cayos. This would have been almost immediately after the two men
met.

The invasion the Liberator Simón Bolívar
planned from Haiti at the end of 1815 in order to free Venezuela from
Spanish forces is known by the name of the expedition of Los Cayos de
San Luis or just Los Cayos. Bolivar arrived from Jamaica on Los Cayos
de San Luis, on the island of Haiti, on December 24, 1815; later
moved to Port-au-Prince, where he had an interview on 2 January 1816
with President Alejandro Petion, who undertook to provide the funds
necessary to carry out the enterprise. Subsequently, after being
granted supreme power by an assembly of the main refugee leaders from
Venezuela and New Granada, Bolívar began to refine the details
of the expedition against the strong Venezuelan coast, with the help
of the Haitian military governor of the Cayos, General Ignacio
Marion. As for the resources which finally resulted from Petion's
efforts, these consisted of 6,000 rifles, ammunition, food, a
complete printshop, the freight of some schooners and a large sum of
money. With all this Bolivar organized a small fleet of 7 schooners:
Bolivar, General Marino, General Piar, Constitution, Brion, Felix and
Conejo, accompanied by another of his friends in Haiti, Robert
Sutherland, La Fortune. Finally, the expedition sailed on March 31,
1816, including in it Manuel Piar, Santiago Mariño, Gregor
MacGregor, Francisco Antonio Zea, Pedro Maria Freites, Bartolomé
Salom, Pedro Leon Torres, Carlos Soublette, Pedro Briceno Mendez,
Manuel Valdes Diego Ibarra, Juan Bautista Bideau, Charles
Chamberlain, John Baillie, Carlos Eloy Demarquet, Renato Beluche
Henry Ducoudray-Holstein and others.

...despite the setbacks
suffered by the expedition and the Liberator himself in Ocumare, the
historic significance of the Expedition of los Cayos is that it
allowed Santiago Mariño, Manuel Piar and then José
Francisco Bermudez to undertake the liberation of east of the country
and that MacGregor with Soublette and other leaders definitely were
established on the mainland, to make way for the final triumph of the
Republic.

Around this time, too, Demarquet is
noted as one of the visitors to Robert Sutherland, a British merchant
(and possibly a secret agent) who was one of Bolivar's early
supporters and ultimately was given Venezuelan nationality Moises
Enrique Rodriguez, Freedom's Mercenaries, Hamilton Books, 2006 I:93.

A little over a year later, Demarquet
appears as Bolivar's secretary. On May 17, 1817, Florès sent
news of a revolt:

The division under my command marches today to defeat the
force coming out of Guayaquil by Yaguachi, by which to prevent
passage by the military leaders send ground forces, veteran pickets
and militias as soon as possible and Ambato and Latacunga where you
wish to headquarters to meet on the direct road from Riobamba to
Guamote Tigsan, etc

Juan José Florès

And Demarquet
forwarded it to Bolivar:

By express order of His Excellency the General I have
the honor to transcribe to Y. S. to be brought to the knowledge of H.
E. the Liberator, President of the Republic. God preserve Y. S.
Demarquet Senor Secretary.

Around this time too, Demarquet was
sent to ask another Frenchman - Ducoudray-Holstein - to translate a
letter in French for Bolivar:

The next morning at seven o'clock another of Bolivar's
aides-de-camp, captain Demarquet, came suddenly in, and asked me to
go at once to the general, who had something important to tell me. I
ran to see Bolivar, whom I found in his bed and beginning to get
dressed. As soon as he saw me come in, he got out of his bed smiling,
although he seemed very agitated: “My dear friend, I need your
advice; please read this letter and explain its contents, because I
do not understand French well enough to know what it means.”

The letter proved to be part of a minor
intrigue, in which a subordinate accused Bolivar of spreading rumors
about him – a charge which Ducoudray claims he did not at first
believe but later was convinced were true. The fact that Demarquet
was not at that point asked to translate the letter may simply
indicate his lower rank, but it also shows that he did not yet have
the close relationship with the Liberator which is so evident soon
after. (The incident also shows that Bolivar, despite having lived in
Paris for some time, was not comfortable reading French.)

Later writers, like Bolivar himself,
have shown a low opinion of Ducoudray who, unfortunately, left one of
the most cited, if slanted, memoirs of the Liberator. Vila compares
him unfavorably to Demarquet, speaking of “a French
official of talents much superior to those of Ducoudray-Holstein,
colonel Carlos Eloy Demarquet.”
Manuel
Pérez Vila, Los
libros en la Colonia y en la Independencia‎,
1970, 80 (This curious work literally traces the literary influences
on various actors in these events).